#+TITLE: Blog - Kevin "The Nuclear" Bloom's Personal Website
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil num:nil tex:t author:nil title:nil
* [[file:articles/dumb-dumb-phones.org][Why Modern Dumb Phones are Dumb]]
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  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/articles/dumb-dumb-phones.html
  :PUBDATE: <2020-12-02 Fri>
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Published: Wed Dec 02 2020

As yes, the modern dumb phone. When you see someone flip one of these bad boys
out in public, you just have to look! The memories of typing with that classic
T9 word. Flipping (or sliding) open the phone to answer a phone call. So epic,
so classic, and now with 4G!? As must as they will take you back to the good old
days of 2005, the current state dumb phones are in is an absolute disaster. This
is what I've learned after 2 years in the dumb phone world.

[[file:articles/dumb-dumb-phones.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/dont-use-a-smartphone.org][Don't Use a Smartphone]]
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  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/articles/dont-use-a-smartphone.html
  :PUBDATE: <2020-11-20 Fri>
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Published: Tue Nov 20 2020

Back in 2018 I wrote an article explaining [[http://nuclearkev.org/articles/back-to-webos.html][why I went back to using webOS]]. It
talked about how my iPhone broke and I finally had the opportunity to use a
Palm/HP device. This experience only lasted a year due to some carrier issues
but it changed my take on cell phones entirely. Since the phone was so old, only
a few things worked - mostly thanks to the awesome [[https://forums.webosnation.com/forum.php][community]]. This left me with
a sort of semi-smart phone. It didn't have social media but I could use the web
a bit and get my email. Most importantly not having tons of apps and features
really made me "wake up" to the reality of things: People are being controlled.

[[file:articles/dont-use-a-smartphone.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/concerns-with-linux.org][Concerns with Linux]]
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  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/articles/concerns-with-linux.html
  :PUBDATE: <2020-11-17 Tue>
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Published: Tue Nov 17 2020

A few months ago I was poking around on a Debian system just for fun and wanted
to install [[https://gnu.org/s/emacs][GNU Emacs]]. On the core install [[https://www.gtk.org/][GTK]] isn't installed by default, so I
fired up =apt= to pull down the program and it's /insane/ amount of
dependencies. When I saw the number of dependencies, I was shocked! I've built
Emacs like a hundred times now and never needed all that. I was curious and
began to look through the depends to see what's up. To my surprise, I found tons
and tons of /unneeded/ programs and libraries, especially [[https://webkitgtk.org/][webkitGTK]], which I
have /never/ needed for Emacs. Especially because Emacs is an editor not a web
browser. "Interesting," I said, "there could be hundreds of programs installed
and no one would ever know..." This thought made me take a deep look at the
current state of GNU/Linux and here's what I've found.

[[file:articles/concerns-with-linux.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/build-system-change.org][Why I Changed the Site's Build System]]
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  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/articles/build-system-change.html
  :PUBDATE:  <2020-04-16 Thu>
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Published: Thu Apr 16 2020

I started off this website in Common Lisp then to org-mode and now finally to a
mixture of the two?! Well, okay, not really a mixture - more like a semi-similar
adaptation. Okay, that's not really true either... Lemme just explain it simply:
the new build system using [[https://gnu.org/software/emacs][Emacs]] [[https://orgmode.org][org-mode]], [[https://www.gnu.org/software/make/][make]], and a small [[https://fennel-lang.org][Fennel]] script. Why
is this better than using plain old org? Let me explain...

[[file:articles/build-system-change.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/dragora-concept.org][Dragora, a Philosophy of Life]]
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  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/articles/dragora-concept.html
  :PUBDATE:  <2018-07-05 Thu>
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Published: Thu Jul 05 2018

As many of my friends and family know, I volunteer for the [[http://dragora.org/repo.fsl/doc/trunk/www/index.md][Dragora Project]], an
independent fully-free GNU/Linux distribution. Dragora is a very important part
of my life because it opened up a new way of thought for me. Not just in my
computing life but also in my day-to-day life. This new way of thought is fairly
interesting and something that I find quite valuable.


Dragora as a concept comes in 4 parts: freedom, independence, community,
simplicity. Each of these parts are valid concepts in computing but also in
personal life, as I've found out. Let's unpack.

[[file:articles/dragora-concept.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/back-to-webos.org][Back to WebOS]]
  :PROPERTIES:
  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/article/back-to-webos.html
  :PUBDATE:  <2018-01-22 Mon>
  :END:
Published: Mon Jan 22 2018

Recently my iPhone SE has been having some problems - /big problems/. The phone
itself runs fine and has no issues handling iOS in general or any apps I wish to
run. It's practically still brand new in that sense. However, somewhere within
the power/lock circuity there seems to be a malfunction causing the screen to
lock and unlock at random. Although very annoying, it was still usable for few
months.


Enter the curse of 2018! The is practically useless now. It locks/unlocks so
much that I can't even accept a phone call. Due to this tragedy, I was forced to
find another cellular device.


[[https://www.replicant.us/][Replicant]] was my first choice. I plugged in my SIM card and ... nothing
happened. Turns out either Replicant 6 has a bug or the phone's SIM reader is
broken. Either way, I had to ditch the idea because I didn't to get a working
phone quickly.


Then it hit me... Palm/HP Pre 3!
[[file:articles/back-to-webos.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/no-js.org][Any Browser and Why it's Important]]
  :PROPERTIES:
  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/article/no-js.html
  :PUBDATE:  <2018-01-22 Mon>
  :END:
Published: Mon Jan 22 2018

You've come to the site of a web developer (me) and were shocked. You immediately
thought: "Lol, why is his site so /old/ looking? This isn't the 90s!" Due to my
prediction abilities, I foresaw this happening, thus, this article was born.
[[file:articles/no-js.org][Read More...]]
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* [[file:articles/why-org.org][Why Org?]]
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  :RSS_PERMALINK: blog/article/why-org.html
  :PUBDATE:  <2018-01-07 Sun>
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Published: Sun Jan 07 2018

There are a ton of options when it comes to creating a website; from designing
it to picking tools for it to hosting it, there is a plethora! As a
professional web developer, I know this first hand. In fact, there
is a painful sickness called [[https://medium.com/@ericclemmons/javascript-fatigue-48d4011b6fc4][JavaScript Fatigue]] that effects tons of developers
because there are so many friggin' options! Given all these choices, why /on
Earth/ did I choose to use [[https://orgmode.org][org-mode]] to create this site?!
[[file:articles/why-org.org][Read More...]]
